Today is the UN’s International Day of the Girl and at Spirit in Action we are honored to partner with many wonderful women who are working to improve the lives of girls and women in their community. We are part of a large network of positive change! Today I highlight three inspiring SIA female leaders:

Wambui Nguyo, Small Business Fund Coordinator, Kenya

From the article: “We are often too afraid to take the lead because of fear of the unknown,’ Susan commented. Before the end of the three days training, she had already taken the initiative to reconcile with one of her long time rivals. She even bought an item from her rival’s shop- something she had avoided for a long time. She was amazed at how well her enemy responded to reconciliation after such a long time. ‘Today I have learnt to let every good thing begin where I am before I can pass it on to others. Even my dad, who caused our family so much pain – after selling our family land and misusing all the money drinking. Today I forgive him and will make peace with him.” (Read the full article.)

Over the weekend the Spirit in Action Board of Directors met in Washougal, Washington. We had one and a half days of planning, singing, praying, and approving new grants and a new Small Business Fund coordinator! One of the themes of the weekend was TRUST. Even when there was initial disagreement, we were each able to express our opinions and work towards consensus.

Thank you to our dedicated Board of Directors!

We approved $15,453 in Community Grants and $5,040 for 28 new business grants and training through the Small Business Fund. I’ll share more details in the coming weeks! It’s so exciting to be able to help dedicated community organizations. And it is wonderful to support the local solutions that are building the foundations for long-term change in Uganda, Kenya, and Malawi.

Barbara Farley, SIA Board member and Bebe Anderson’s niece, brought some old photos of Del and Bebe from their trip to Japan in the 1960s.

Our Inter-Connectedness

“I believe that this beautiful Divine Plan for me is a perfect part of the larger Pattern for the good of all, not something separate unto me alone. I believe that it has ramifications and interweavings that reach out through all the persons I meet and all the events that come to me, and that the best way to put myself in harmony with the Divine plan that is within myself is to accept with radiant acquiescence all the individuals and events that are drawn to me, seeing in them perfect instruments for the perfect unfoldment of my perfect Plan.” — Glenn Clark, The Divine Plan

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” Hebrews 10:24-25.

It is a special call to provoke one another to love and to do good. And considering how to encourage people is part of Spirit in Action’s legacy. There are some places – camps, retreats, church groups, support groups, etc. – where the barriers we build up in everyday life can be broken down, and we can reach out to each other. We allow ourselves to encourage and be encouraged, recognizing the light that is in each of us.

Del Anderson, the founder of Spirit in Action, was very skilled at encouraging people. He had a way of speaking or writing words of encouragement that took away doubt so that you absolutely believed what he was saying. Reading one of his letters in college could relieve my feelings of inadequacy and fill me with a greater sense of worth and purpose. I sensed that he honestly believed the truth of his words as he told me and others, “within you is the power,” and, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

“It is our joy, privilege and responsibility to transform God’s dream for us into a working, living reality. You are greater than you know. You are of more value to God than you believe possible.”

Giving some encouragement to a SIA Small Business Fund family in Uganda and receiving a gift of gratitude (in the form of a chicken!)

Encouragement, when given honestly and humbly, can have a tremendous, lasting effect. That’s why I often highlight “encouragement” as the third leg of SIA’s programmatic stool. In addition to the Small Business Fund, and our Community Grants, we also are called to listen to and encourage one another.

And the encouragement doesn’t go unnoticed. “I am happy that you are perfectly playing your role of motivating and inspiring me every time we exchange emails,” responded one partner from Kenya. And from Zambia, “Thank you so much for mail. I really appreciate for endless support to WCI.” I receive so many emails with words like these. And I also received emails and notes from SIA supporters who encourage me.

So let us hear and answer this call to encourage each other and provoke each other to love and do good works for our neighbors and the earth.

I’ll leave you with my latest favorite words of encouragement:

“I have need to be on fire. I have icebergs to melt.” — William Lloyd Garrison

Lord, give us the audacity to live as though we believe our hands and feet are instruments of prayer. Amen. — Common Prayer (via Sojourners)

Yesterday, Boyd and I took our lunch break to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail aloud to each other. Reading it in its entirety, rather than in a series of quotes, I was impressed by frequent references to God, Jesus, and Biblical figures. There are many deeply moving quotes from King about the arc of justice, about how we are all inter-connected, about expressing compassion to each other, about love and hatred. These are quotes that stem from and refer to the deep truths of his Christian faith without always mentioning his faith.

King’s letter quoted Amos and made more than a few references to Paul and the early Christians. He seemed to take courage from those first Christians who were radical in their faith and who didn’t settle for the status quo. Churches today, King lamented, were afraid to be labeled as “nonconformist” and were shying away from the important work of challenging injustice and structural prejudice. He asks: “Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?”

This letter is a call to action, now. Not to wait. Not to be afraid to be different or radical or uncomfortable. People of faith must be people who stand up for justice, for moral rights, for the inherent dignity of all people.

Some of the team in Manyamula Village in Malawi that is standing up for justice and hope in their community.

Spirit in Action is not just a “spirit” organization. It is also an “action” organization. We see light and value and hope and possibility in the poor, in people of distant communities. We see that organizations that do not allow people to be actors in their own future, in their own prosperity, perpetuate an unsettling hierarchy of those who are helpers and those who need help. Action is confronting people who make statements that lump all of Africa into a uniform culture, who distrust all people who are poor. I know that is my great privilege to serve others, to give and encourage so that they can realize their own dreams for a better future.

We may not be able to help everyone. But we are not waiting until we can to solve all problems before we serve one person. We are not waiting to be a perfect organization before we dive into action to co-create with God for a better world.

Thank you for joining me on this path, in this action, in this service, and in using the power of God for good.

I sign off my post today with the same words as Martin Luther King, Jr. used in his letter from the Birmingham jail:

My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. — James 1:2

Sometimes it’s the photos that are blurry and candid that capture the most joy. Here I am with SBF Coordinator Dennis Kiprop in 2011.

What does joy feel like? For me, it is a feeling of expanse and effortlessness, an emotion that fills my heart and soul. Joy opens me to experience something that feels bigger than I alone.

Thinking about these positive emotions of joy, it is difficult to believe that the tests in my life should be moments of joy. James calls us to feel happy even in the midst of challenge, when we are most tempted to ignore God and ignore the joy of the Lord.

The song reminds me that, “the joy of the Lord is my strength.” And it is in times of test that I need that internal strength.

This may be an easier idea to read than to put into practice. When I feel unsafe on the road, or when I experience sickness, I don’t naturally think to consider joy.

But when I remember, when I am able, to consider joy, then the darker thoughts get pushed to the side. I can cultivate joy in those tests by talking to a friend or loved one, by connecting with the larger world, by remembering a past moment of delight, by recalling a beautiful place where I’ve experienced joy, or by putting on a good song and dancing.

Del writes about feeling joy and the power of God in us: “In this quickening power, let me be aware of God’s divine grace activity with awe, wonder and expectancy. Thus the outer condition or negative relationship is dispelled in the light of Spirit. I will practice and exercise this being still, letting go and letting God be God in me, through me, as me.”

That power of God’s joy in us and that privilege to be co-creators with God are available to us when we turn occasions of trial – occasions that, in our human experience, seem despairing – into occasions for joy.